My linguistic buddy Jamie had a great post idea. I am to ask people what kind of strange English phrases were they taught back in Czech/Slovakia?
Here is his experience for example:
‘When I arrived at the hotelovka (vocational school for waiters and hospitality services), they were training kids as servers to ask restaurant customers, “Do you have any wishes?” When I first arrived in the CR, nearly everyone was pronouncing “sweater” as “sweeter”, and when we would correct them, they would protest that “sweeter” was “British English”, but the British don’t say it. They also taught the kids to call the školník the “school servant”, which, as far as I know, is only used in Singapore.’
Isn’t it so funny? I myself don’t remember any stupid English phrases I was thought (I am sure there were many) I just know we were thought some STRANGE pronunciation ;0))
Got anything to share? Do it!
CZ: Nas veleznamy lingvista Jamie mel vyborny napad na post. Co jste se pry v ceskych/slovenskych skolach ucili za v praxi neexistujici nebo zastarale anglicke fraze?
Jamie ucil nejaky ten rok v Karlovych Varech anglictinu a toto byla jeho zkusenost:
‘When I arrived at the hotelovka, they were training kids as servers to ask restaurant customers, “Do you have any wishes?” When I first arrived in the CR, nearly everyone was pronouncing “sweater” as “sweeter”, and when we would correct them, they would protest that “sweeter” was “British English”, but the British don’t say it. They also taught the kids to call the školník the “school servant”, which, as far as I know, is only used in Singapore.’
Ja si osobne zadne takove fraze z mych hodin anglictiny nepamatuju, ale co si vybavuji je ta PRISERNA vyslovnost, kterou nas pani profesorky ucily. Tak napriklad slovo ‘vegetable’ jsme museli vyslovovat jako ‘vegetejbl’, nebo slovo ‘parliament’ jsme museli vyslovovat doslova jako ‘parLIAment’ apod.
A co vy? Jakou mate zkusenost s ceskym skolstvim a ‘perlami’ ceskeho jazyka?
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Hey everyone, here is the English translation of Gandalf’s comment – pretty funny!
“There are blogs out there with only positive comments….if the author erases all of the negative ones or the ones that could have possibly offended him. Why such theatre? A normal person would correct that mistake if someone points to it, but not you. You start to whine, how this world is an unfair and mean place and that everyone else is to blame. They are all spoiling it for you…God, get yourself together woman, how old are you? I don’t even know if you are going to approve my comment, since I dare to tell you that you make mistakes in English as well as in Czech. Well, you have not made much progress in 12 years if people are correcting you all this time. Instead of whining you should try to learn something. You are a weird wench. I would not want someone like you at my home. I don’t think I will be coming back here, since this blog is full of crazy egos.”
By the way, Gandalf, why didn’t you write this comment in English, are you afraid you would make a mistake???? LOL
Tanja, ale kazdy spravny logger touzi po negativnich ohlasech a komentarich… Ono totiz negativita nejak pritahuje lidi vice nez positivita… Kdybys mela jen positivni ohlasy, nevypadalo by to moc demokraticky..
)
no, to mas Vlastimile pravdu. Jenom ty negativini perlicky asi zacnu prekladat do anglictiny, aby se s nimi mohl pokochat cely svet..;)
Honey, I will provide my own translation, because I would not want to be misquoted.
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There are blogs out there with positive comments only; if the blogger deletes all the negatives ones and does not publish anything that would offend him. Why such a tirade? A normal person corrects his mistake immediately, if someone else points out that mistake, but not you. You start whining instead, talking about an unfair and unjust life, blaming everyone else. There are spoiling my work! Good god, woman, how old are you? Get a hold of yourself! I am not sure you will approve this comment, because I dare to tell you that you do make mistakes in Czech and in English as well. You have not made much progress in those 12 years, and when someone corrects you, you start crying instead of learning something. What a strange woman! I would not want such a woman at home. I think I will stop coming here, since this blog is full of damaged egos.
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Yes, I will write in English because your translation is terrible. Wench? Crazy egos??? You do need to expand your vocabulary, and I’ll be glad to help you.
I see Gandalf sitting in the corner, pointy white hat withering and downtrodden, and with no more spells left to cast. So alas, he spreads vitriol and negativity to calm his troubled soul…
BTW I see at least FIVE mistakes in your English translation. Mordor beckons.
My Czech girlfriend warned me about Czechs.
:0))))))))))
Gandalf, because of you, I am ashamed of being Czech. How typical! Negative, critical, self-righteous and most of all SO RUDE!
You are right, just go poison some other site!!!!
Keef, I dare you to find any mistakes in my own translation.
Correct me, go on…I am waiting…
Correction: Your English grammar. Five mistakes. At a glance. e.g. 1. Improper use of semicolon. 2. ‘There are spoiling my work’. ‘There are’? Oh, you mean THEY are? 3. …blogger deletes all the negatives ones… Which is it? Negatives or negative ones? I could go on, but there are hobbits I must go fetch.
It is so funny!!
I don’t only learn more about English language , I learn more about the live and real stupidity taking over the world …. Go on fellows, the 2012 is approaching 
Keef,
you are right. I made a few mistakes. More or less typos. I did not concentrate fully. They are, definitely and negative ones…You said 5 mistakes or more though, so dig a little deeper. Where are those horrible mistakes? By the way, I can see mistakes in your writing, but let’s stick to the subject, which is Tania’s translation ( full of mistakes grammatical and other).
Keef,
I forgot to add. The semicolon is used properly.
The semicolon is used to separate two independent clauses that could stand on their own as separate sentences. The second part of your sentence cannot stand on its own, therefore the use of the semicolon is improper, wrong, unwarranted, vile, transient, wayward,and a downright ghastly use of English. The flames of Mordor are licking your feet.
Keef, how cute. Enough with your Tolkien “knowledge”. Yes, I get it. You know the movie or perhaps even the book. How childish is to ridicule another man’s nickname. Are you related to the author of this rag? Childish behavior seems to be the name of the game.
SEMICOLON
The use of semicolon listed by you is not the only one.
I can use the semicolon when I want to form a bond between two statements, typically when there are related to or contrast one another.
Your command of English language is lovely, how hard you try not to sound like an American…
You win Gandalf. Bye.
we are the world….we are the children …
Wow, you guys need to get a life! There is more to it than spelling and grammar!!! Actually in the Czech Republic whenever I read any comments on an article, they were in 99% negative and mostly people were just slamming each other and calling each other names…that is why is stopped reading them and commenting because I don’t like to add more negativity and stress into my life. It must be Czech nature to do this as in the US I have not seen it as much… “Equally named” has been used many times in many articles, which were not written by Czechs, just google it. Even if it is incorrect, so what…if anyone does not understand what it means then they have much bigger problems…Tani jen tak dal, negativni ohlasy si vubec neber, hold Cesi jsou takovi, ale ne vsichni!
I don’t think Czechs are mostly negative people.
The problem with negative people is that they are trying much harder to get noticed than positive people.
It is similar to a situation
where you have 2 murderers in a group of 100 people, then media will cover it 24×7 for next 24×7 hours and the stereotype will kick in and suddenly we will see a group of 100 people to be avoided
Disclaimer:
Any errors in the text above are not intentional and
and no animals have been killed during writing this post
“takovou bych nechtel mit doma” Tak tos me rozesmal hochu – po tom co tady predvadis se fakt modlim za to, ze ta tvoje/ten tvuj ma co se tyce jazyku jeste o level vyssi vzdelani nez ty, pac poslouchat ty tvoje opravovaci kydy po kazdy proneseny vete, tak to by me asi jeblo
))
Haha, Jani, ty jsi dobra!
Vlastiku, je to asi fakt, ti negativni jsou vic videt. Ale i tak, nevsiml sis nekdy, ze kdyz se nekoho v CR zeptas: “Jak se mas?” tak odpovi litanii problemu? A kdyz clovek rekne, ze se ma fajn, tak se na nej divaji divne? Ja vim, Amici ti vzdy reknou fajn, i kdyz to treba neni pravda, ale na druhou stranu proc vyjmenovavat ty negativity, kdyz nemusis?
Kdyz jsem zacinal v USA, tak jsem sel do prace ve 4 hodiny rano, bylo to na Manhattanu (NY) a tam jsem videl dva bezdomovce….Jeden se hrabal v popelnici, hledal snidani…Druhy bezdomovec sel okolo a zeptal se: “Hi buddy, how’ you doin’?”… A opdoved byla typicka “Doin’ fine!!!” …
Tomu rikam positivni pristup k veci
Ha! That’s a classic…’don’t worry,be happy’. Although if I were homeless I would pick the USA to be my home too. There is food lying around everywhere! And those $1.00 hamburgers – c’mon!
Tak premyslim, jestli by American , ktereho by zivot zaval do jine zeme, dstel siru na Americany. I don’t think so.
Amici to vedi, protoze v tom vyrustali/-ji. Pro Cechy to az tak jasne neni – vyrustali/-ji v necem jinem. Taky mam ten dojem, ze je tam trochu rozdil jestli jde o lidi blizke versus cizi. Navic, osobne bych to negeneralizovala (Americani jsou VZDYCKY pozitivni)a neplivala do vlastnich rad na “negativisticke” Cechy. 
Zrovna dnes mi muj pacient (American), odpovedel ” Lousy!” 
(Chodi ke mne kazdy patek na injekci, takze se tak nejak zname)
Fraze “How are you” je POUZE a jenom zdvorilostni FRAZE. A to same je i odpoved: “I’m fine/great/good.”
Kdyz priletim do Cech, tak vim, ze se mi lidi na tuto otazku zacnou sverovat a specialne v pripade rodiny a pratel mi to vubec nevadi – ja to CHCI vedet. Zajima me to – mam je rada and I truly care about them. Vim, ze to tam nemaji lehke. A jak jsem uz napsala – proste jiny kraji, jiny mrav.
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